Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., Todd Flashner <tflash@e...>
wrote:
Todd, in the post you replied to, I was referring to a Piezo
workflow, not mine. So I'm not sure the answers to your questions 
will be meaningful.
> With your workflow, can you basically work an image till it looks
good on
> screen and print to your favorite paper without a dot gain curve
and get a
> good screen to print match?
Yes, including the monitor image after CMYK conversion. Not perfect,
but close enough. Things feel so different to me on 
paper than on monitor that it's never a one shot deal.

> Do you then apply a custom dot curve to suit the
> image to other papers? Or do you use a custom dot gain curve for
pretty much
> all papers?
My workflow doesn't use a custom dot gain curve when in grayscale,
the CMYK custom ink setup includes a dot gain curve 
for each of the 4 quad inks, as well as their specific LAB values,
the value of the paper white, and values of their various 
combinations.  A custom ink setup is required for each paper in order
to develope proper separation curves for them. 

> Do you use color management tools to create your custom dot gain
curves or
> do you eyeball it from a step wedge? Does a spectro give you data
that you
> can use in a meaningful way to set your curve quickly, or does it
still end
> up taking a few rounds of best judgement applied to a wedge?
The spectro gives CMYK dot gain numbers very quickly, they are
difficult to eyeball. Real World Photoshop 5 has good info 
about it, including eyeballing. Don't have RWPS 6 yet.
Once a good CMYK setup is in place, developing the actual separation
curves takes several rounds. Actually, it's much 
faster creating curves with Dan's RGB profile method than CMYK,
because the profile samples so many patches of ink  
combinations.
Tyler